Josef Koudelka

Born in 1938 Boskovice ( former Czechoslovakia) Josef Koudelka is a photographer who's work I greatly admire. This is mainly due to the photographs he took of Romany people throughout Eastern Europe. His first book titled 'Gypsies' was published in 1975 and is my favourite to date. In it hes shows the journey he took through gypsy communities, exploring the customs and traditions of the Roma people, a people that were and still are greatly outcast from modern society.

Documenting them through all of life occasions such as weddings, funerals, some hard times and some good. He manages to capture their true emotions so that they for the first time can be understood as people, rather than judged as outlaws. Above I have placed two of my favoutire phtogoraphs one of which was taken at a funeral and higlights a tragic moment for a famiily. Yet is heart capturing becuase of the beautifully white light shining down on the body that etchines out the faces and emotions of the people standing by.

Also I have included another of Koudelkas photographs that was taken at a wedding were by the gypsies took to the streets to play their instruments; something they were know greatly for and took pride in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Koudelka

Modern Photographer

Man Rays' work could be labeled a modernist approach to photography because of his attentive detail to form, structure, composition and lighting. He looks at the subject as shapes and lines; as a visual structure.

Man Ray took the photograph above called 'Larmes' in Paris 1930. This was at the time of the break up with his then Lover Lee Miller. It can be said the false tears maybe in some what in relation to his emotions and situation at the time.

As you can see this photograph is a film still and visualises a new style of photographic genre that is not concerned with what is real and factual, but more about the conceptual idea behind the image.

http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=44253

United colors of Benetton

Figure 1 AIDS – Davis Kirby 1992. Photo: Courtesy of the United Colors of Benetton website

The United Colors of Benetton are a hugely successfully Italian based clothing company that always aim to make a statement and raise awareness in their advertisement campaigns. In 1992 they used this photograph of David Kirby dying of HIV AIDS(see figure 1). Its aim: to raise awareness of AIDS worldwide, and to get people talking about a topic that still today remains a taboo matter in many countries.

Though what is wrong with this image? Well German Appeal courts got the advertisement banned all together in Germany, having claimed that,

“Benetton is trying, through its depiction of the intense suffering of living things, to evoke a feeling of compassion on the part of the consumer, and to suggest that it is sympathetic," the court wrote. "In this way, Benetton tries to enhance its name and its business in the mind of the consumer."

Also adding that the advertisement, “strips HIV-positive people of their dignity.”

It is difficult determine whether or not the company is sincere about their reasons behind the campaign, or if they are in fact exploiting someone else’s pain for the benefit of company profit. Though the answer is impossible to know. What is definite though is that some moments are too sensitive to expose, such as this one. To think if you knew someone that was dying or had died of AIDS would you really want advertisements like this posted all over the world? Showing an image of a weak and frail person who has some what lost their dignity and the ability to live. I am sure that is not how people want to remember their loved ones, nor be remembered. Rather figure_ can be viewed as a form of shock tactic,an advertisement that digs deep for cheap emotional manipulation, rather than a source of truth and new awareness.